Ken Holland, the Red Wings GM, has been famous throughout the NHL for his acquisitions at the trade deadline. Making the rich, richer.

The Red Wings are perennially in the Elite of the NHL, and Holland, always seems to make his team better, right at the deadline, for a stronger push into the playoffs.

Memorable pick-ups of the past are: Chris Chelios, Robert Lang, Ken (Red Light) Wreggett, and Igor Larionov... just to name a few... which really is just a few of the great pick-ups Holland has made in the past. The guy really is a wizard.

But in the "New NHL"... the Wings were forced to cut their payroll in half... and have been living life within $500,000 of the salary cap all season.

Even though no one expected the Wings to be able to do much, many Red Wings fans held their breath in anticipation of what the Wizard may be able to pull off.

Turns out, it was pretty much nothing, although he really didn't have much to work with.

With the loss of Jiri Fischer, Defense was a small question mark... and Goal-tending is a big question mark...

Manny Legace is having a very stellar season, compared to previous years, but has traditionally not been strong in the playoffs. And Chris Osgood is a proven Stanley Cup winner, but Coach Mike Babcock seems to have little faith in him.

So most Wings fans were hoping for something along the lines of a Goal-tending change at the deadline.

Here's what Holland did:

He traded little used Defenseman Jamie Rivers to Phoenix for a 7th round pick in the 2006 draft.

And they traded a 2007 4th round pick to Pittsburgh for a decent Defenseman Cory Cross. Cross isn't going to make a huge contribution, however, they are expecting him to make the regular rotation as a 5th or 6th defenseman.

So, much to the chagrin of Wings fans, there were no fireworks. No praising of Holland's genius... But he did have this to say in the Detroit Free Press:

"We weren't looking to do anything significant," Holland said. "Why do something significant? I think we've got five, six, seven players on our team that can play better. ... I still think as a team and individually, we can raise our game. So, again, why look to make a major overhaul at this stage of the game?"

And last time that I looked, the Wings were bouncing between 1st place and 2nd place with the Carolina Hurricanes... So, maybe Holland knows what he's doing.

And last time that I looked, the Wings were bouncing between 1st place and 2nd place with the Carolina Hurricanes... So, maybe Holland knows what he's doing.

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I think Kenny knows what he is doing. No one assumed the Wings were a lock to win the cup this year, and yet he has the squad near the top under a new coach in the first year of the dreaded cap era.

I remember writing somewhere before the season began that the cap would not help the badly run franchises. The Wings have a lot of accumulated experience, intelligence and skill in the front office. Smart folks can figure out any system, and with the resources the Illitches will inevitably divert from salary into scouting/coaching, the Wings will still have a big competitive advantage built on money.

Of all the NHL GMs, Kenny Holland has to be top 3. Who else would you want making (or not making) moves for a stretch playoff run? The man knows what it takes to win, and he's basically said that improvement must come from within. I like that a lot. Accountability.

I think what has, and will continue to help the Wings is the crazy high quality scouting they have... seems to be especially good when it comes to European players.

If you look at guys like Zetterberg (210th) and Datsyuk (171st), each other team passed on them like 6 or 7 times before the Wings picked them up... Johan Franzen, their rookie addition to the grind line was a 3rd rounder... Holmstrom was the 257th pick (10th round)... Lidstrom was a 3rd rounder (53rd pick)... I said Lidstrom was a 3rd rounder... Kronwall was the 29th pick... Jason Williams was undrafted... Igor Grigorenko, expected to be here next year (62nd pick)... Jiri Hudler 58th... Valtteri Filppula 95th... Stefan Liv (Swedish Goalie, almost went to the Olympics, but suffered an injury) 102nd pick... Mathieu Dandenault was picked 49th... McCarty was 46th... Osgood was 54th...

The list goes on and on... but my point is they know where to find the talent... and even really talented rookies don't get a ton of money from the cap. But when you continually draft late, you need great scouting, bottom line.

Agree with you Micro, the Cap wasn't going to terribly hurt the well run teams, although I really wasn't expecting the Wings to be doing this well after cutting their payroll in half, and I must have grown accustomed to the "trade dealine rush"... this year it was a little bit of a let down. But watch out next year... we've got a lot of big contracts coming off the books.